Bliss

One of my modern, medical heros is Dr. Christiane Northrup (www.drnorthrup.com).  Anyone who has ever listened to her speak or read her books, knows just how truly amazing she is.  I admire her willingness to step outside the box of modern medicine to inform all of her patients, and all of us, the missing pieces to our vitality and health.  She brings together emotions and symptoms, and urges us all to see how the two are not seperate. 

In her most recent newsletter, which you can get at www.drnorthrup.com,  her feature story is about Limbic imprint recoding.  Elena Tonetti, of www.birthintobeing.com, offers Birthshops where she "invokes our emotinal and physical memory of Bliss"!!  Sounds good to me.  Maybe if there is enough interest here in CNY, we could invite her here for a Bliss shop (my words).

THANK YOU ELIOT SPITZER!

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Sex, Lies and the Truth About Uterine Fibroids

Sex, Lies and the Truth about Uterine Fibroids is a well-written book by Carla Dionne (visit www.uterinefibroids.com for more info.), who is the executive director of the National Uterine Fibroids Foundation (www.nuff.org). Ms. Dionnne's book is a tremendous resource, inspired by her own experience and very practical, a must read for any woman curious about treating fibroids.

In her book, there is a section about castor oil packs that is very interesting and, the only place I have encountered a reference to a paper written in 1999 entitled "Immunomodulation Through Castor Oil Packs", written by Harvey Grady, which was published by the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine. The paper addresses how castor oil affects the lymphatic system and ultimately supports the immune system.

I love how Carla brings together these three energetic: Sex....our primal instinct to move energy freely throughout our pelvis and ultimately our entire body; Lies, could be one lying to oneself about what truly makes one happy, frustrated or sacred. all of these feelings can get lodged in the pelvis, esp. feeling like you are not being creative enough, having the time to be creative. if ou are always in survival mode, this freeing energy of creativity, which can come out in dance, cake baking, house decorating, it's limitless. to have creative energy available, you have to make the time to let it come out. Any woman who is fully engaged in life juggling all that it has to offer, knows that time is something practically non-existant! so that is our work, create time. all of this can be done in the mind. begin by imagining, or just plain fantasizing, that you have enough time for yourself. be specific in your visualization. imagine yourself going through your day in exactly the fashion you would like. long stretches before you get out of bed, couple deep breathes before you take your first sip of lemon water....and continue on.
One of the contributing factors in any accumulative disorder (which fibroids are), is the lie that we subscribe to that there is not enough time in the day to take care of oneself. And then we subscribe to it without even fantasize once about how we DO want our lives to look. So give yourself the creative outlet to fantasize about your life and exactly how you want it to look and feel like.

Love and Forgive

My all time favorite pod cast is Garrison Keillor's, the Writer's Almanac, supported by the Poetry Foundation.  As soon as I hear his poetic verse and voice, all is well for me.  He soothes your heart and expands your mind all with simple, lyrical gesture.

One of the sponsor's for the Writer's Almanac is www.loveandforgive.org, which is part of the Fetzer Institute.  Who would have thought that an entire website would be founded on the principles, scientific research and practical application of Love and Forgiveness?!  If you are interested in applying these principles in your life, visit their website (there are job opps. there as well).  They have an on-line forgiveness exercise that could be very helpful for those in need of developing this muscle of the heart.

Of course, the best way to a Happy Uterus is to Love and Forgive!

Detoxifying Herbal Clay

Mud is loaded with naturally occuring minerals which, when applied directly to the skin, are absorbed right into your bloodstream. Minerals are so important in your bodies healing and it is very difficult to get enough minerals in your diet without supplementing.

Happy Uterus Detoxifying Herbal Clay is actually a combination of mud and herbs. The herbs were carefully selected for the purpose of detoxifying the body. When applied on the body (and the best way is to use a brush and apply everywhere, esp. where there tends to be lymphatic congestion like your breasts and underarm area), you can feel the mud drawing, pulling and creating change right beneath your skin.

If you have been to any spa anywhere in the world, you will almost always notice "Mud Baths" on their menu of options. This is because for hundreds of years people all over the world have been soaking themselves in this wonderful, mineral and herbal saturated stuff to heal themselves. I was inspired a few years back, when doing a lot of research on infertility and it's cures, when on the front page of our local newspaper was a photo of a group of women in Peru sitting beach side covered with MUD! The caption read that they believed mud helped cure infertility and hence they were using it.

Often, our best cures come directly from the earth and that is why I love this mud. For more information, please visit my website: www.happyuterus.com and also visit www.deadseawarehouse.com for information on where this mud comes from.

The Second Brain

For all you brainiacs out there, you must read "The Second Brain" by Michael D. Gershon, M.D. With a lot of words, Dr. Gershon explains neurogastroenterology and the evidence that our guts have their own nervous system and are therefore, the second brain. The nerve cells in our guts (mainly small and large intestine) can "go it alone; they can operate the organ without the instructions from the brain or spinal cord". This is totally amazing to me.

Now, for all of you chronically constipated or whoever can not poop while traveling, this should make a lot of sense. You can not will your intestines to do anything, they have a mind of their own. More later on what is the best way to nourish the second brain and how our guts actually make serotonin for our first brain!

For more information, visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/health/23gut.html

Moments in time

I know some people may be interested in how I became interested in complementary health, and just what kind of education and experience I have (this is jennifer btw, founder of happyuterus.com) and I thought rather than bore you with the details of chronology, I will share some of the funnier stories I actually remember of my life based education that never ends!

When I was 19 years old and studying in East Africa (mainly Kenya), I "apprenticed" with a local healer on the island of Lamu. (an incredible place to visit, highly recommend it).  What that meant was that I went to his clinic every day and watched while he talked(in Swahili) to locals that came in and prescribed herbs for their ailments.  All the herbs grew on the island. There was also a German student also doing research for his P.hd.  Anyhow, I got head lice.

Ever had head lice?? It's horrible stuff.  I was bright enough to actually think that I could drown them out in the ocean.  I went swimming every day and stayed under water for as long as I possibly could and thought, today's the day they will drown.

Of course, this did not work.  I was SO committed to not using any chemicals on my body (meanwhile being exposed to all sorts of second hand chemicals and pollution), that rather than using the 24 hour kill all your lice head spray, I used this local doctors remedy. This took one month and I had to sleep every night with this very aromatic herbal concoction on my head while wrapped in a towel!

At the end of my apprenticeship, the doctor strongly urged me to get married to a local man because that would provide me with better housing (no head lice in the local housing) and I would NOT have to convert to Islam!  What a relief!  (In Islamic culture, if a non-muslim woman marries a muslim man, she does not have to convert.  But,if a non-muslim man marries a muslim women, he MUST convert)  Interesting fact to know for all you single women out there who may be traveling to the coast of E. Africa!! 

Lesson learned: sometimes the fast approach to health cures is the best approach!